British economy shrinks in Q4 amid claims recovery will be ‘slow and uncertain’

The British economy shrank in the fourth quarter as companies scaled back investment, underlining the risks to a recovery that Bank of England governor Mervyn King says will be “slow and uncertain”.

GDP dropped 0.2% from the third quarter, the same as previously estimated, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday.

Economists predicted no revision, according to the median of 36 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. Business investment fell 5.6%, the most since the first quarter of 2011.